Chile Water Scarcity Decrees in Force (DGA)

## What this measures

The number of water-scarcity decrees in force on the last day of each month (the current month as of the latest weekly read). Under article 314 of Chile's Water Code, the Ministry of Public Works can declare a zone of water scarcity at the request of the Dirección General de Aguas (DGA) during severe drought; the decree lets the authority redistribute water and authorise emergency extraction. A decree ran six months until the 2022 Water Code reform; recent decrees run a year. Each decree can cover communes, provinces, a whole region, river basins or aquifer sectors.

## Why it matters

A decree is the state's formal finding that drought is severe enough to override normal water allocation. It shows where water is officially scarce, which matters for mines, farms, hydropower and towns that compete for the same water, and for any company whose operations or community relations depend on water.

## How to read it

Higher means more of Chile is under emergency water rules. Counts rose sharply during the central Chile megadrought from 2019 to 2022. Read it with the communes series to see how wide the decrees reach.

## What it does not say

It counts decrees, not area or people: one decree can cover a single basin or a whole region. A decree reflects a government decision as well as rainfall. Before April 2023 the DGA's map layer is followed; the DGA's spreadsheet omits about 25 of its 2021–22 decrees, and a few dates or numbers differ between the two lists. Three layer records whose end date equalled their start date use the six-month term the law set at the time.

## Source

Dirección General de Aguas (DGA), Ministerio de Obras Públicas de Chile: ArcGIS layer DGA/Decretos_Escasez_Hidrica (rest-sit.mop.gob.cl, 2008 to April 2023) and the DGA spreadsheet of decrees (dga.mop.gob.cl, Decretos_zonas_escasez_historico) for later decrees. Each observation lists the decrees in force and the decree PDF where the DGA gives one. Decrees are published in the Diario Oficial. No licence is published; displayed with attribution: Fuente: Dirección General de Aguas, MOP.